Wordspills
by Hidden Relevance
Summary: A series of wordspill ficlets set in the Boomtown verse. There will be one for each of the main characters, with a rather random timeline and pairings. Now Complete!
1. Welcome

**Whoot! Yet another Boomtown fanfic to add! Though no, I still don't own anything of Boomtown other than the boxset and several McDonough drooling.**

**These will be a collection of very specifically written "Wordspills" a concept I am shamelessly stealing from a club over at Deviantart and sharing with all of you. Basically, these little ficlets are written in 10 minutes or less with the text turned OFF. You get to write whatever you want with your mental editor turned off, then at the end of that 10 minutes, you turn the text back on and get to edit. **

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**Prompt: Welcome**

"Kelly, you there? I'm home…" As he'd half expected, there was no warm welcome, no call of 'hey honey' or 'looks, it's Daddy.' There was only silence. It was a sound he'd grown used to in the months since his wife's attempt at leaving him and their son permanently to follow after their lost little baby. Lately, Kelly either holed up in what was once their bedroom or sunk herself into a long bath, drowning out the world in headphones and foam.

Joel hated to admit that he was starting not to care if he saw his wife. While his son was still his miracle, still his world, Kelly was growing less important to her husband's survival. Less vital, less fulfilling, less… just less.

He remembered the hunger and wonder he'd felt every time she smiled from the start of their first date through his proposal and their wedding and on to the birth of their son. It had been a powerful yearning he'd thought would never fade.

But it had.

Now there were only obligations, the same he felt for any civilian. He needed to protect because it was the right thing to do. A duty like any other he faced from day to day on the job.

He wanted more from her, needed more as a husband, as a man. But he'd finally realized that he wouldn't find in behind the doors of that silent house, the one that had grown to feel so much like a tomb.

He would never find it, not with his welcome so long absent.

**Hope you didn't hate that. It's an odd exercise, but one I definitely like. Reviews are love!**


	2. Childhood Dreams

**Next in my Boomtown wordspills. This prompt just screamed David too me. Here's hoping you think so too!**

**And no, I don't own anything now either. Though there are glimpses of 2 OCs from my other Boomtown fic "Closest Thing to Family."**

**Prompt: Childhood Dreams**

Little Davey wanted to be a baseball player or a fireman or a soldier with a medal and a big shiny gun. He wanted to be-- well, he wanted to be anything, anywhere but where he was and what he saw around him.

Little Davey never wanted to be a 'fixer.' Never said, "I want to hit people and make them cry. I want to make people do what I tell them to." No, he never wanted to 'get things done.'

What he wanted, if he could be honest then or even now, was to just be David. To find a way to be himself and no one else. To not exist in old Jackie boy's shadow. To never feel the weight of that brutal legacy.

But he doesn't really think he can. At night, David dreams of his father, of all the things he never said, the praises he never gave. Dreams that just once Jack might have told him "I'm proud of you" or "Look what my son has done!" instead of "Now, look what you've done."

They're just dreams, though. Just dreams that make a strong man cry in his sleep while a young woman holds him close and chases away the pain as best she can. She's another dream he never thought to have as a boy. He never wanted a wife as girls were oh-so-useless, and after all, his father never thought much of his or of any of the half a dozen other women he took up with.

But David finds he needs this one like he never needed whiskey, needs her warm smile and bright eyes like he never needed any woman before now. Not his first wife or his lover, not any woman since them ever made him as weak as she does.

Even more than her, though, he finds he needs the shy little boy down the hall. That boy that, despite memories of horrors David knows he's seen, still sleeps soundly through the night as long as his new family is nearby. That boy that dreams his own dreams. He told David just the other day that he wants to be a lawyer or a policeman. Wants to save people like all the brave men that saved him.

David wakes from his old dreams to the dimness of his, now their, bedroom and realizes something he never has before. That even in the brightest dreams he dreamed as a child, he was never as whole as this unplanned reality has made him.

**Hope yall enjoyed it! And feel free to offer me a one word prompt or two- the club I borrowed this exercise from only gives me one every two weeks!**


	3. Parallel

**Same rules as before, and yet another spill- this time from Andrea Little's perspective for the prompt "Parallel." I can't say I honestly like her character, but she was suprisingly easy to write.**

The lines drawn between them are clear and concise. He will never leave his wife; she doesn't want him to. He gets publicity as a political goldmine of a DA, and she gets the scoop on all his latest cases. It's formal, calculated, and strictly business.

Not to say that they aren't dynamite in the bedroom, but it simply is not the focus of their time together.

Sometimes she wonders just what it was that tempted him into this relationship—that caused him to make that first move into infidelity. Had his wife gotten old? Had he stopped caring? Did he do this often?

The answer to all of these is a resounding "no" which she finds has made it all so much more complicated. Despite the opinions of those around him, he is not a bad man. Is he an adulterer? Yes. Is he an alcoholic? Yes. Does he love his wife? Undeniably yes.

So why had he come to her? She supposed it was for much the same reasons that she had gone to him. Is she a codependent? Yes. Is he just like her father? Yes. Does she still want him? Still, yes.

It is simply addicting, and more than a bit aggravating to admit, but there really is no other explanation. They are far too alike to last, but for the moment they are, perhaps, stronger together. Or at least, a little less lonely.

She wonders if that is the true flaw of human kind—an inability to be alone. If so, she and he are still just as flawed as the rest of them. Hopefully, no more than that. God knows, she'd had to discover she was turning into her mother.

**Hope you enjoyed this next installment!**


	4. Staircase

**Yet another in the Wordspill saga! This one is centered around Ray, who is actually my least favorited character. Who'd have thought I'd enjoy writing this?**

**As always, I own neither Boomtown, nor the wordspill concept. I just play with them!**

Ray Hechler gasped for breath. He supposed he should have been trying harder to get back in shape prior to this particular quandary, but in all honestly, he just hadn't felt the need to do so. Despite the assumption that police officers needed to be in peak condition, Ray rarely needed to exert himself too much. Generally, if a perp decided to run, he and his partner had a fairly solid pattern. Tom would run, and Ray would go for the car. It made perfect sense really: Tom was just faster on foot, and Ray was one helluva driver.

At the present moment, however, a car was not going to be any help to him. The perp, according to the aerial unit hovering just over the building via helicopter, was currently on the roof of the shabby apartment building. So, leaving their trusty steed parked at the curb, Tom and Ray had gone in, only to find that the elevators were out of order (all three of them and Ray was fairly sure that was the evidence of one nasty cosmic joke). Thus, the pair's only option had been the stairs. Ten excruciating flights of stairs to be exact.

Clinging to the railing at the 6th story landing, Ray was pretty sure he wasn't getting paid nearly enough to sprint up ten flights of stairs. He wasn't sure anyone got paid enough for that, frankly. His partner was at least two flights above him now, damn over-achiever, and Ray found himself facing a rather unavoidable decision: did he stay there and actually breathe, or did he continue on and risk a possible heart attack?

Taking one last good breath, Ray gathered himself and continued up the stairs, his pace quickening as he went. He was a cop, after all, and his partner would need him to watch his back once he reached the roof.

**Review if you like, and feel free to borrow the prompts for your own Boomtown ficlets!**


	5. Deja Vu

**Here's the next installment in my Wordspill series! This time, the mercurial Fearless is the subject. (and yes, this moment does allude to my other Boomtown fic "Closest Thing to Family"- I suppose Bri's just becoming cannon in my mind lol)**

**PS- I do not own Boomtown, though David is currently lobbying on my behalf!**

**Deja Vu**

It was happening again: he was beginning to hate himself a little more, moment by moment. Beginning to remember where he'd really come from—the shame, the betrayal, or the fear a child should never know.

He wondered if they realized—those he worked with everyday—if they somehow knew that he often felt less of a man. It was doubtful; more than likely, they only saw 'Fearless.' Only saw the soldier-turned-detective who lived for his work and always had a story to tell. No, he imagined few of them would ever look for 'Bobby,' for the shattered boy beneath the man.

His partner knew, of course. Sometimes, Fearless wondered if they didn't somehow exist as one mind—their secrets simply sliding between them unspoken and unacknowledged until there's a real reason to. Yes, Joel knew what this new case (and the frightened child before them) would do to his partner. Fearless believed he couldn't not know.

Another that he's almost sure can recognize the white knuckled grip of Fearless's hand was that blonde in the corner. Not that McNorris would ever admit to that kind of weakness without some ulterior motive, but Fearless had noticed the signs. David all but wore a neon sign reading 'battered child' for anyone who knew how to read it words.

That little psychologist at his side was yet another, Fearless knew. She's never spoken to him about it, but the detective mused that she, much like Joel, must have learned to hear what others don't say... What others can't stand to say. Idly, eyes on the child she knelt before, Fearless hoped she only had observed those kinds of tragedy and never learned those hard facts for herself. Bri's a sweet woman (would have to be to put up the snarky blonde who'd brought her here) and far too kind-hearted to ever deserve to live through the kind of abuse etched on David and Fearless's skins.

Fearless sighed again. It was coming full circle: another frightened child, another helpless adult, another tragedy out of anyone's control. Fearless had been here before and hated to realize that he might likely be here many times again.

**Hope you enjoyed this one! See you next time!**


	6. Autumn

**Welcome to the next installment of my Boomtown Wordspills: a series of 'wordspill' ficlets each focusing on one of the Boomtown characters (who of course, do NOT belong to me.. damn)**

**Anyway, here is the lovely Theresa in 'Autumn.'**

Theresa hated autumn with a passion one wouldn't normally associate with a mere season. Most days, she'd say that she didn't really care which season it was—her words as much a part of her job as any other skill. After all, paramedics were supposed to be encouraging… Hopeful. Seeing their savior bitching and moaning about the time of year was not exactly encouraging. Still, there were also those days where she'd be forced to admit what she most often hid from her friends and colleagues—that she just flat hated fall.

Growing up, fall had meant school starting: that return to the special hell where cliques and bullies ruled, and a shy sweetheart of a girl would be pushed back into the shadows. She'd had friends, so it usually wasn't a total loss, but she still missed the warmth and relaxation of summer, the promise of freedom and growth from spring, and the cool breezes and holiday love that was winter.

Fall? Well, she just couldn't find anything worthwhile in that season.

As she grew into adulthood, fall somehow seemed to be her busiest time on the job. It wasn't like she knew of any statistics to prove it, but it always felt like she and the other paramedics on staff were already run ragged by the end of September. And there was only more of the same in the months ahead.

Not to mention that you really shouldn't get her started on October and Halloween. Granted she'd only recently gone through the horror of being kidnapped in her own ambulance, but that particular holiday was always messy. Idiotic kids gave themselves food poisoning or actually were poisoned by some freak handing out 'candy,' and the adults got ridiculously drunk only to show up at the hospital after one costume clad accident or another. She simply loathed the entire process.

Still, none of these even hinted at her true reason for hating that season. Frankly, it wasn't one she'd even admit to herself. She didn't want to recognize that every time she thought of the coming fall, she saw her mother forcing her way through those last painful months until the day she finally just let go. Until the day, she just faded away after a 'doctored' applesauce no one ever knew Theresa had helped to prepare.

No, she will never like the fall. It will always be a reminder of the time she failed the person she loved most.

**Hope you liked it! Review and let me know aye? And BTW, I decided to only do one spill per main character so Tom will be the last one to go.**


	7. Phoenix

**Here's the last in my series of Boomtown Wordspills, this time for Tom. I hope you enjoyed this little series; I know I certainly did!**

**Once last time, I do NOT own Boomtown or David McNorris. Le sigh.**

It was always hard for a man to chart his own course after his father had already charted one just about identical. It was even harder to excel, to make his own mark. Tom wondered if that fact was why he constantly felt so resentful of Joel, of the precinct itself. Hell, of just about everyone except his partner. Whether that was the reason or not, he knew that he wasn't exactly his coworkers' favorite guy. Or at least not the male coworkers: the ladies tended to like him just fine.

Still, it rarely bothered him. He was a good cop, he knew. He pulled his weight, protected his partner's back, and took down the bad guys on a semi regular basis. The higher ups should have little to complain about. Still, the fact that he was still a ways away from that coveted detective ranking galled him, even more so since the 'high and mighty' Joel seemed to have reached that height with minimal effort, while he, a police family legacy, was still toiling away on the streets. Tom made no small secret of that fact.

_And why the hell should he?_, he wondered.

Maybe that's why everyone could believe he'd gone over to the dark side: had actually fallen for the IA bastard's spiel. He knew what the others would think he had to gain: a fast track to 'tec, a chance to really fuck over Stevens for good, and maybe even the chance to prove to his dad that he wasn't such a failure. God knew, it was almost tempting.

Why then, with all those perks laid out before him had he chosen to pull such a momentous prank?

Mr. IA certainly didn't know, and Stevens seemed pretty damned confused himself. If he'd wanted to, really wanted to make nice with Stevens, Tom might have told him... just to see that shocked expression on his face.

But he didn't, that phoenix from the ashes crap wasn't his style. Tom had known exactly what he was doing, and who he was really doing it for. After all, IA was the only thing that could make his dad go postal even quicker than that damned river jump had months ago. There was nothing and no one that his pops hated more, and Tom knew it. And now, his pops knew he knew it.

That, Tom told himself, was what really mattered.

**Reviews are love my dears!**

**BTW, remember- I'm still promising a requested ficlet for any of the fandoms I write in to anyone who helps me fill up the Boomtown archive-even if it's just with a couple little fics or drabbles! Let me know in a PM or review if you've written one!**


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